Campaign of the Month:
April 2012

A God...Rebuilt

Chip

CHIP

Sea Titan and Ley Line Walker of Rifts Earth, follower of Isis and the Church of Light & Dark

Chip is physical perfection made form, if that form were human. He stands 6’1" tall when bare-foot (a common occurrence) and weighs 184 lbs when naked (also a common occurrence). There are no scars, tattoos, moles, blemishes, stretch-marks or other distinguishing features anywhere to be found on his body. Since the party has known him, his skin has been a light golden tan, with no evidence of burns, peeling, or freckling. Chip’s hair has grown somewhat since first meeting a Dwarf on an Island, but remains a shaggy surfer-bob nonetheless. Exposure to sun and salt has lightened his naturally blonde locks somewhat, and it seems that despite never tying it back, his hair never gets in his face, or obscures his slightly-cleft-chin, nor his luscious lips (please reference Chip’s First Log in the campaigns section for a fairly-accurate if dated mug-shot). His eyes mirror the oceans within which he was born: sometimes grey, sometimes green, sometimes blue… occasionally stormy but more often light and lively. In many ways, Chip probably looks like a well-fed slave, perhaps a Gladiator or Pit Fighter, though one who is pampered, and spared the vagaries of a vulgar and vindictive master. He holds himself with utmost confidence and self-possession, at once calm and impassive, displaying neither tic nor twitch, no nervous energy evident, either in speech or gesture, and in the next moment an untoward grace and precision in speed and agility, a blurring, stylized dance of motion; action and reaction, yin and yang. These two forces do not war with each other, merely, they co-habitate within his flesh, each one evident entirely in one moment, but absent from the next… sharing, not seige-ing.

Chip embodies Tyler Durden and Johnny Utah: 2 parts aesthetic drool, one part self-assured-swagger, and a dash of gutter-charm giving rise to airs of nonchalance.

Chip was killed by his own gun, Bertie, exploding, and while resurrected, chose to go home rather than endure Palladium any longer.

MWAS Rifle: With Thoth’s blessing(runes have appeared on the rifle), now does 1D6x25+25 Damage to all Gods & Minions of Dark, and holders of the parts of Osiris.LAWS launcher: by grenade/rocket/torpedo type: current load is 4xAP (1d4x10), 4xHE (1d6x10), and 4xfrag (4d6 to 20 ft [6m] blast area for fragmentation.
Vibro Bayonet: 1 regular charge=5 so full 6=30.

100 feet of nylon cord & grappling hook (strapped to outside),
***Revolver in shoulder holster/backpack shoulder straps.
chip is right handed. thus the trident is carried in his left hand (until combat) as a walking stick, the revolver is under left shoulder/armpit. mwas slung on back unless not being carried (in cart).

Primary weapon is the MWAS assault weapon from his power-armor. Long e-clip attachment allows for 6 shots before reloading. A full drum of grenades for the launcher is all he has (no spares). The vibro-bayonet is back-up in case his trident goes missing.
Payload: long e-clip powers 6 shots from pulse gun before reload required. LAWS capacity is 12 round drum magazine.

Barracuda .357 Magnum 6 rounds

Helmet is a pre-rifts design: Oklahoma University (Boomer Sooners!) football helmet, complete with OU and 13 starting stickers. a variety of augmentations have been fastened, bolted, or duct-taped to the helmet, including a sun shade, radio/com link, IR lenses and whatever other standard gear that most helmets have without being invasive.

One Teleport:Superior scroll, worth at least 20,000 gold. Teleports up to 2000lbs, any people, items within 20’ of reader. 99% accurate to a familiar location. A gift from Malkin Falimede. Could be used to return to Rifts Earth by Chip.

Sixteen of Nemo-2’s 22 Sea Titans are dead. My father is one of them.
My mother. Well, she’s out there, you know… Adventuring
So’s sis, for that matter, but then again, I dunno what you’d exactly call… y’know, what I do, either.

Adventuring I guess.

Anyhow, dad’s dead, and mom’s AWOL, and y’know, the ol’ man had a mission. Y’know. Like, from the Captain. An’ dad, he’s an odd sort anyhow, so he goes off to the mainland and meets mom, and they hit it off and all, and whatever, and meanwhile, like, I’m born and stuff. Me and my sister. Yah, twins. Go figure. Only she’s like mom, all red hair and stuff, and dad reckons I’m a bit more like him. “A real Chip-off-the-ol’Brock” he says, laughing. That’s me.

Chip

Anyhow, so dad’s got this thing, and all… like this mission. And being as how he’s got this thing, y’know, I guess that means I’ve got this thing, too. Y’know. Cuz he told me. He told me about the shining in the pit of blackness, the deep, the aching, terrible deep. He told me about the Monster. That’s what he saw, he said, when he got changed. When we all got changed. He saw black tentacles, reaching across at him from space, from the pits of the deep.

Yep. Bound to change a fella’ I reckon.

As for mom and sis, well. I guess they’re doing ok…
Y’know. haven’t heard from them for a bit, but like…

I don’t get mail often.

* * * * * * * * * * *

Chip is a Sea Titan. His father, Brock was one of the original 22 of Nemo’s crew to be changed, and his mother, Aryelle is an Amazon. His father, the black-sheep of the crowd, and a trusted, intuitive advisor to Nemo, was a latent mystic, but largely undeveloped. Chip’s twin sister is, of course, also an Amazon. But she’s nasty. She’s of the belief that boys are mystics and girls are psionicists, and obviously one is right and boys are wrong. Mom is off fighting the good fight somewhere on the mainland, and Nemo has dad off looking for the answer to fighting and killing the Lord of the Deep, and along comes this red-haired-vixen and all of a sudden we’ve got twins.

shit.

Chip is a marine biologist with too much time on his hands, and too few concerns. Following up on dad’s mission to find an ‘unconventional’ means to putting an end to the Lord of the Deep, Chip has found himself a practitioner of a strange variety of spells and powers (Sea Titan RCC, Ley Line Walker OCC) most of which serve his current curiosity concerning the interplay between Naut’yll, Dolphins and Alien languages related to the sea. Maybe he’s a gifted… dare i
say cunning
Linguist

Of the salty depths.

Recently he’s been found in the Azores, hunting up contracts and other lucrative reasons to be following in dad’s footsteps, because, y’know, that’s really the right thing to do, but it also happens to be October and there’s no better place to be than those balmy islands this time of year. He’s pretty sure he’ll see mom again, some time. Pay respects and all, but he’s totally in the dark about his sibling and even the ’twin’s sense’ is eroded due to her practicing psionics and his magic. Additionally I see her as being one of the few rare amazons who is Abberrant or Selfish, because even though she went off to amazon school and played with all those girls, Chip followed dad after the split between the parents, and is even, if loosely, tied to the New Navy. It wasn’t fair when, at age 13 or so, Chip all of a sudden became a match for his sister, and that really rattled her, so that she became reactionary, often violent or mistrustful of men, who could, so easily, stop and turn on a dime, change her complete perception of them.

Be so mercurial.

Likely, these 2 were born under the sign of the Gemini (duality) or perhaps Libra (scales). they are Yin and Yang, both human and both not. One Psychic and one Mystic. Boy and girl. They will unite the dark side with the light. and find a way to kill the big ikky monster at the bottom of
the sea.

Or so says prophecy, somewhere, some time.
in the mean-time…
you decide

* * * * *

Dad’s dead, so he’s not the one (Sea Titan) running around currently with the Monster Hunter and the Atlantean. Chances are they’re following clues about dad in South America, if not actively hunting for his remains.

Dad split with Mom just before onset of puberty for me and sis. Mostly this was over the fact that Mom was taking sis to South America to begin her formalized training etc. and knew that I wouldn’t be joining them. Mom and Dad had a row over what to do with/about me, mostly because she didn’t want me growing into a Super-Jarhead. That deteriorated to the point where each was forced to go their own way or be cut-off from their respective enclaves. Dad wasn’t happy about it, but had his duty, his mission to proceed with. Mom wasn’t about to let the New Navy turn me into a cigar-chewing, thick-necked bully with “the law” on his side, and pleaded with Dad to take me away from the Navy, to explore and encourage my growth in other directions. Dad did this, reluctantly, and started bringing me on his forays across north and south America. He had an in with a Magister in Tolkeen, and got me into their program via subterfuge and bribery. I was a bit old to start there and he had to convince those teachers in Tolkeen that I wasn’t his son, and thus still a mortal creature. I didn’t last long at the academies in Tolkeen because, even though I was happy to abide by their laws and rules, I was ostracized due to my “square-ness” and found it hard to break years of conditioning to expand my mind in the ways necessary to grasp the Mystic arts. After one final, exasperating and explosive confrontation with my Tutor, I was expelled and sent packing, relinquishing all my goods and fees paid to them by my father. This is when I was given a note from my father by the headmaster, a note which told me that dad knew this day would come. I would be turned out with no help, no expectation of salvation, and with no resources.

This would be my first true test that I would have to complete before I was accepted as a Sea Titan…

I must now find my father and help him carry on his mission. At this tumultuous time, all the pressures and fears of life compounded in my adolescent body and mind, and not only did I awaken my “true” Sea Titan heritage, but also cleared my mind of all the external pressures, all the impedimentia that were keeping me from being focused enough to perform Magic.

* * * *

So now, alone, and forced to make his own way (back to the Navy? how to find his father?), he heads south, along the coast as much as possible, hunting for clues as to where his dad has gone. It’s at this point that he comes across Bexx and his family again, reuniting childhood friends… but eventually he gets back to the Fleet, where he finds out that his dad is missing, and mom hasn’t written in a very long time. He reintegrates with the New Navy, but his training is now so far behind the others in his class that he’s again seen as an outsider, unable to keep up with the others of his apparent age and ability. His father’s mission still burns within him, and he sets off again to pursue his own fulfillment of his father’s quest. He takes only a single item from his storage locker in the fleet: the M-90 MWAS from his suit of power armor. It has been modified by a weaponsmith to accept E-Clips

Speaking of.. different. chip. chip is not your regular, New Navy Sea Titan kid. Dad went and got himself killed, but only after leading and living a life of adventure (at the behest of the New Navy, to be sure). Mom was a only a short-remembered but valuable mentor for some of his early life. Dad took him away and back to ‘civilization’, where he learned what it is to be a Sea Titan. He was constantly told of the ‘change’ that would overcome him. He talked to his friends. Girls were ok, and hairs understandable, so change meant little to him.

Save that he’s like bloody Ender Wiggin. He’s training to be a New Navy seal at age 4. Not your normal kid.

Then dad goes haring off on his various missions, and because mom is definitely not having the boy-child around, he takes young (adolescent, prepubescent, infantile even) chip along. He meets new people. He makes friends and has contacts on the mainland. They provide him places to hide and stay, feed him, and generally are his ears/eyes for their regions. Chip’s dad is a weird guy. Changed. He has weird contacts… contacts that nobody else in the New Navy could fathom.

Contacts in Mississippi.

Contacts in Tolkeen.

Contacts (and a renegade wife, to boot) in South America, presumably somewhere close to an Amazonian enclave, raising their daughter.

A grave marker in one of these locations (or another).

So i’m guessing that Chip is pretty young, maybe 22 or 24 at oldest… and he has this mate of his, some human dude from the Bayou. Not so far apart, nor hard to conceive…

That also means (per kevin’s input on game progression, especially as it pertains to mages and line walkers), that I expect the advancement scheme to be fairly slow from here on out. I’ve had my (Chip’s) time of vertical expansion, it’s now time to build (wisely) upon that base and grow up a whole lot… just what I was doing at 24-28/current. I don’t yet see chip as a hardened veteran of Rifts Earth, I guess is what i’m saying. He’s still a jingoistic kid from Pawtucket who happens to live in Mecca and has an apostle for a father and Mary Magdalene for mom. Further, dad has been around about 200 years or so, before I was even born. Chances are he has contacts of Bexx’ that span generations… and likely through the mother, if she’s the witchy-bloodline of the clan (and not just crazy like dad). A very likely business arrangement, in fact.

as for the timelines concerning Chip, remember that he’s 4 years old to do his basic training with the new navy and Sea Titan coolness.

It takes 10-12 years to become a 1st level Lord of Magic in the Federation.

Chip is SDC until age 14-19, roughly. Personally, I think he developed later, but if he was as stubborn and hot headed as I was at 14, that doubtless sparked tension in his teachers and mentors… and might have brought about a rather accelerated ‘change’ in him. Also, dad was constantly taking him out of school to go on ‘trips’, either as part of cover or at the behest of his mother, who still held some sway in chip’s father’s heart. So even by age 16, Chip wouldn’t have the skills of many 14 year old Sea Titans, but would have some other-world thinking (skills) more representative of his vagabond’s education (here I’m thinking that naval tactics and history will be a given, but other weird skills like monster and alien intelligence lore will also be evident as a result of the RCC/young learning phase circumstances).

Chip is turned loose (escapes, or goes AWOL) at about age 18 or so. He spends years on the lam (maybe partially with Bexx, or otherwise looking for him), practices magic to help shrug off the blanket and association of the New Navy, and that phase snowballs for a few years, leading him to the Azores and IronHeart industries. Now level 3 line walker.

Speaking of timelines… this just in per request (and a great one!) to tell our Birthdays…
Chip Samuel Pico-Royas Linseth was born June 13. roughly 20-22 years ago (that makes it ’86 PA).

other noteworthy dignitaries sharing his birthdate (that he has dredged up on the worthless New Navy Nobleweb* tm*:

Thomas Arnold:
“What we must look for here is, first, religious and moral principles; secondly, gentlemanly conduct; thirdly, intellectual ability”.
“Real knowledge, like everything else of value, is not to be obtained easily. It must be worked for, studied for, thought for, and, more that all, must be prayed for”.
“The difference between one man and another is not mere ability – it is energy”

William Butler Yeats:
A mermaid found a swimming lad,
Picked him for her own,
Pressed her body to his body,
Laughed; and plunging down
Forgot in cruel happiness
That even lovers drown

“Come Fairies, take me out of this dull world, for I would ride with you upon the wind and dance upon the mountains like a flame!”

Paavo Nurmi: “All that I am, I am because of my mind”

Augusto Roa Bastos: “In all nations an exceptional man exists that compensates the deficiencies of the remainder. In those moments, when humanity is found collectively in a state of decadence, there always remain those exceptional beings as point of reference.”

Whitley Streiber: “The visitors tell me that there is an organic quality in our skulls that dampens telepathy, and that this is going to fade.”

Tim Allen: “Men are liars. We’ll lie about lying if we have to. I’m an algebra liar. I figure two good lies make a positive.”

and finally,
Ashley and Mary Kate Olsen: (respectively)
“Some twins feel like they need to compare themselves to each other, but we’re not that way. That’s because of my parents, though…”
“Mary-Kate is always the smily girl. Ashley is …. duh just not.” AND “I think everything happens for a reason, so there is no such thing as fail.”

all such good Geminis, and a pair of twins at the end! Clearly Chip is the Mary Kate of this duo…

Go.

Chip was born under the sign of Selestra. Selestra is the sign of the ocean and athletics. Mages with with the sign of the mermaid tend to be playful and curious.